Introduction: Activated Leukocyte Cell Adhesion Molecule (ALCAM/CD166) gained increasing attention regarding tumorprogression and metastatic spread in breast cancer. The aim of this study was to examine ALCAM expression levels in primary breast cancer and distant metastases of the same patient within 29 autopsy cases to better understand the underlying mechanisms of metastases and the role of adhesion molecules in this process.Material and Methods: Paraffin-embedded tissue of the primary and distant metastases (N = 84) were collected and ALCAM immunohistochemistry was performed.Results: The primary tumor and all metastases showed a statistically normally distributed ALCAM expression. ALCAM expression level average differs between immunoreactive score (IRS) (mean) 4.16 (lung)-5.00 (adrenal gland). Of the metastatic ALCAM expression levels we obtained an intra-class correlation (ICC) of 80.9%, indicating a strong cluster effect of measurements in the same patient. ALCAM expression scores in metastatic sites and in the primary analyzed by hierarchical regression analysis showed that ALCAM expression in the primary is prognostic for ALCAM expression in all different sites of metastases (slope = 0.773, p < 0.001, r² = 0.504).Conclusion: ALCAM expression in the primary is positively correlated to ALCAM expression in metastases within one single patient. This could show a tumorbiological context of ALCAM for the development of metastases in breast cancer.

中文翻译：

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活化白细胞粘附分子 (ALCAM/CD166) 在原发性乳腺癌和远处乳腺癌转移中的表达水平。

简介：活化的白细胞粘附分子 (ALCAM/CD166) 在乳腺癌的肿瘤进展和转移扩散方面受到越来越多的关注。本研究的目的是检查 29 例尸检病例中同一患者的原发性乳腺癌和远处转移中的 ALCAM 表达水平，以更好地了解转移的潜在机制和粘附分子在该过程中的作用。材料和方法：收集原发灶和远处转移灶（N = 84）的石蜡包埋组织，并进行 ALCAM 免疫组化。结果：原发肿瘤和所有转移灶显示出统计学上正态分布的 ALCAM 表达。ALCAM 表达水平平均值在免疫反应评分 (IRS)（平均值）4.16（肺）-5.00（肾上腺）之间有所不同。在转移性 ALCAM 表达水平中，我们获得了 80.9% 的类内相关性 (ICC)，表明同一患者的测量具有很强的集群效应。通过分层回归分析在转移部位和原发灶中的 ALCAM 表达评分显示原发灶中的 ALCAM 表达是所有不同转移部位 ALCAM 表达的预后因素（斜率 = 0.773，p < 0.001，r ² = 0.504）。结论：原发灶中的 ALCAM 表达与单个患者内转移灶中的 ALCAM 表达呈正相关。这可以显示 ALCAM 在乳腺癌转移发展中的肿瘤生物学背景。